Homecoming
by Oimino
Summary: As painful as the seperation was for the four of them, as beautiful was the reunion. SakuSasuNaruSai


"Couldn't sleep?"

Sai gently closed the door behind him and approached the blond standing by the open window who had spoken. He didn't answer. Didn't need to.

Naruto offered him a brief glance before he once again settled for staring out the window into the night.

"Neither could I" he said continuing the conversation on his own, and Sai let him knowing he needed it.

He went to rest against the left side of the window letting Naruto occupy the right. In the dim light of the moon his friend looked pale. Distant. And perhaps he was. Far off, miles from the village, past the many trees, the rivers, the hills that surrounded their home, in a different country that was weeks away, together with her.

He too felt the urge to go search for her. Wanted to make sure that she was alright. Wanted to take her away, lock her up, keep her safe from the world. Even though he knew she would never let him.

The two men sharing the window knew perhaps better than anyone her strength, as they were often on the receiving end of it, her intelligence, her obvious capability as a ninja. They did not need to be reminded even though they often were.

"Relax, don't you remember the time she punched through a building?" Ino would ask mockingly even though worry was eating her up too.

"Yeah, calm down man. I mean she kicked you out of the village once" Kiba said cocky smile in place "Literally".

Even so whenever he took a walk with Akamaru he made a point to always pass the gates to see if she had returned.

"You know, she beat me in shogi once" Shikamaru would add to ease the concern they all felt even though he must have won at least 50 times and the odds were hardly in her favor.

But it was not her qualifications they questioned, not her ability they feared was lacking. It was the terrifying fact that there would always be a better ninja out there ready to take your life.

The trees were swaying gently in the wind, making their shadows dance in the light of the moon, but Sai noticed that Narutos attention had turned to something else above them.

He pointed towards the roof. "He has been up there all night" he murmured.

Sai looked outside and saw a lone dark figure sitting hunched on the roof of their home. A figure that had once been so empty that the darkness had lured right beneath his skin treating to swallow even the softest touch.

And now was so incredibly full of everything that he sought the night hoping that the endless sky, the stars would accept if only a small part of his bursting heart so that he could continue living.

And maybe just maybe he hoped that a little part of the darkness would return to take away some of the pained love, that filled his body so that he once again could breath, so that tears would no longer be forced out his eyes to make more room for the burning love he had for her.

The pair of friends watched the suffering Uchiha from the window knowing only all too well his pain.

"Worried?" the former member of Root asked finally opening his mouth. The concern he felt for both the man on the roof and the one beside him was not audible in his voice but it did not concern him neither the person his question was directed to.

Because before they all moved in together she had told him that the emotions on his face didn't matter. It was the feelings in his heart that were important. She told him that the people who knew him, the people who cared would take their time to understand him. That's why he should focus on developing his heart. The people who didn't try, didn't matter. He should not care for them.

He figured that he was pretty good at not caring and decided to give it a try. He remembered asking her if she knew anyone who cared.

The smile she gave him had been so warm, so full of all the good that she wished for him that for the first time in years he felt his heart beat once. Against the ribs and back. And he figured that if he was around her maybe he could become human again.

A breeze from the open window cooled his face. He watched Naruto as he nodded answering the question he had asked. "I'm worried. But not about him".

The artist didn't ask further, because he understood.

He wasn't going to say that she would be alright, just to soothe his friend, because he knew that she might not and being Sai lying had always seemed so pointless. But he did pat his friend on the back once. Not to ease his troubled mind, but simply to let him know that he also worried.

And somehow the shared uncertainty, fear and hope, knowing that they were not alone helped the three men to keep their sanity.

And suddenly the three of them froze. Because they could hear footsteps on the stone path leading to their house. And in the moonlight they caught a small flicker of pink as a worn out woman slowly made her way towards her home.

Neither Naruto nor Sai had the chance to react before something near an explosion was heard as Sasuke shot of the roof breaking the roof tiles in the process and crossed the space between him and their woman in less than a second.

"Sakura"

He crashed into her with such force that she gasped in pain, but before she collapsed from the impact his arms were around her.

He buried his face between her neck and shoulder and pressed her harder against his chest wanting every part of his being to feel her, wanting to make sure that she was warm and moving and alive.

He bit down hard on the skin his lips rested against and heard her gasp in a mix of surprise, pain and protest and he loved every sound leaving her lips because he did not care whether she sang or screamed as long as she was able to take the breath to do so.

And suddenly she felt his lips moving against her skin forming words as a pair of tears fell from his eyes.

"Never again"

And any former assault was forgotten as she hugged him back with even more force if possibly, pressed her body against his so that nothing but clothes separated them because she knew and he knew that she could not promise him that and that at some point the roles would be reversed the next time he would be assigned a mission this long and this dangerous but neither could prevent it and so she pressed her lips against his hair breathed in his sent and allowed herself to finally feel at home, to feel safe.

"Sakura"

They broke apart to let in the only other two people who were just as important.

Naruto was the first to grab her and hold her in an arm's length looking over her entire body searching for blood, for wounds, for missing limbs.

And when he found nothing but dirt, scars and blood that did not belong to her, his shoulders relaxed, the furrows in his forehead disappeared and his entire body slumped over, his head resting against her shoulders and his arms gently draping themselves around her waist as tension left his body and was replaced with pure gratitude as he thanked whichever god had held his hand over her.

She had hardly any strength left to keep them both from falling but even so she gathered him in her arms and let him be vulnerable just for a moment because if anyone she knew how hard it was to watch her loved ones disappear into battle without being able to support them.

"If you hadn't returned soon.." his voice was but a whisper, but she heard him, loved him for the way his voice nearly broke as he recalled the empty hours without her.

"If you hadn't returned soon.. I would have come to get you myself" and she knew that he would have.

She found his face and placed soft butterfly kisses on his cheeks, eyelids, forehead, nose and finally his lips letting him know with each touch that she was back, she was safe and she would never leave him.

"Sakura"

A hand reached out to touch her cheek and she turned her head to look up into a pair of eyes that so rarely showed this amount of emotion.

Before she could say a word she felt Sais lips against hers and finally the tears that had been pressing behind her eyes for so long fell.

Because the troubled look in his eyes that mirrored the mixing feelings of past fear and present joy, the feelings of the lost child that he had never been, made her realize exactly how long she had been gone and how much she had missed them.

She had missed Sais firm direct kisses that stripped her of all control and left her at his mercy.

She missed Narutos soft and warm ones that enveloped her, swallowed her and first released her when she had forgotten her own name.

She missed Sasukes which always started out calmly, controlled, but ended in a fierce battle for dominance that she had long ago given up, because the pleasure he could give her was always too tempting to fight.

She held Sais face between her hands and kissed him, no tongue, just lips against lips again and again, to make up for the ones they could not share during the separation.

Her tears mixed with their lips and he pressed her tighter to him to comfort her, to let her know that he would be her support, and that when her guard fell she would have three new ones standing beside her, protecting her.

She knew. And so she fell, exhaustion overwhelming her.

And immediately she felt them around her. Sais arms around her waist having never let go, Sasukes chest against her back, an arm around her torso to support her and Narutos strong hands around hers, shining blue eyes capturing hers, no longer filled with worry but reassurance and she felt completely secure.

She felt her eyes dropping and with the last strength she could muster she whispered:

"Let's go home"


End file.
